Majority Language Death
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 7 (January 2014) Language Endangerment and Preservation in South Asia, ed. by Hugo C. Cardoso, pp. 19-45 KWWSQÀUFKDZDLLHGXOGFVS 2 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4600 Majority language death Liudmila V. Khokhlova Moscow University The notion of ‘language death’ is usually associated with one of the ‘endangered languages’, i.e. languages that are at risk of falling out of use as their speakers die out or shift to some other language. This paper describes another kind of language death: the situation in which a language remains a powerful identity marker and the mother tongue of a country’s privileged and numerically dominant group with all the features that are treated as constituting ethnicity, and yet ceases to be used as a means of expressing its speakers’ intellectual demands and preserving the FRPPXQLW\¶VFXOWXUDOWUDGLWLRQV7KLVSURFHVVPD\EHGH¿QHG as the ‘intellectual death’ of a language. The focal point of the analysis undertaken is the sociolinguistic status of Punjabi in Pakistan. The aim of the paper is to explore the historical, economic, political, cultural and psychological reasons for the gradual removal of a majority language from the repertoires of native speakers. 1. P REFACE. The Punjabi-speaking community constitutes 44.15% of the total population of Pakistan and 47.56% of its urban population. 1 13DNLVWDQLVDPXOWLOLQJXDOFRXQWU\ZLWKVL[PDMRUODQJXDJHVDQGRYHU¿IW\QLQHVPDOOHU languages. The major languages are Punjabi (44.15% of the population), Pashto (15.42%), Sindhi (14.10%), Siraiki (10.53%), Urdu (7.57%) and Balochi (3.57%). Speakers of RWKHUODQJXDJHVDFFRXQWIRURIWKHSRSXODWLRQWKLVFDWHJRU\FRQJUHJDWHVRYHU¿IW\ languages, some of them on the verge of extinction (Census of Pakistan 2001, Table 2.7: Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License ISBN 978-0-9856211-4-8 Majority language death 20 Together with speakers of Saraiki 2 (10.53%), which is treated by some linguists as a southern dialect of Punjabi (Nadiem 2005), 3 bearers of the Punjabi language represent the majority of the population of Pakistan. Even if Saraiki is excluded, Punjabi has the largest number of speakers in Pakistan: Pashto, with 15.42% of the speakers, and Sindhi, with 11.77%, occupy a distant second and third place. Urdu, the national language of the country, is the mother tongue of only 7.57% of the entire population of Pakistan. 4 The Punjabi community has all the features that are usually taken to constitute ethnicity: a shared territory, history, geography, and cultural roots. The basis of the people’s cultural heritage is their common language. The earliest poetic treatises produced in Western Punjabi date back to the 15th century, and the earliest available prose works are the Janam Sakhis – hagiographic stories of the life and teachings of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak (1469-1539) –, from the 17th century (McLeod 1980). They were popular mostly with the Sikh community, while Farid’s poetry, folk songs and Qissa stories constituted the common heritage of the three main religious communities of the Punjab – Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. 5 107). 2 Saraiki is spelled also as Siraiki and Seraiki. Saraiki is the spelling used in universities in Pakistan. 3 Punjabi and Saraiki are mutually intelligible, differing in their consonant inventory and in the structure of the verb. As there are no clear-cut criteria for differentiating language DQGGLDOHFWWKHVHSUREOHPVPXVWEHVROYHGRQWKHEDVLVRIVSHDNHUV¶VHOILGHQWL¿FDWLRQ 4 Source: the Government of Pakistan, Statistics Division/Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics [http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_ by_mother_tongue.pdf]. These statistics, based on a census conducted in 1998, have been challenged by many scholars and rejected by many politicians who claimed that a certain DPRXQWRIHGXFDWHGXUEDQVSHDNHUVRI3XQMDELLGHQWL¿HGWKHPVHOYHVDV8UGXVSHDNHUV HJ Mansoor 1993). The results of the 2008 census have not yet been disclosed. 5 There are controversies among scholars concerning the earliest traces of the Punjabi language. (Gopal Singh 1979). The verses by Sheikh Farid found in the Adi Granth are usually considered to constitute a clear link in the descent of modern Punjabi from the Multani dialect (Sekhon & Duggal 1992). Some scholars ascribe ‘Shloke Shaikh Farid ke’ incorporated into the Adi Granth to Farid-ud-din Ganj-i-Shakar (1173-1265), others attribute them to Farid Sani, the spiritual descendent of Ganj-i-Shakar. There is no unanimity over the lifetime of Farid Sani as well. Sometimes it is dated from 1450 to 1554, sometimes from 1450 to 1575. Some scholars argue that the ideas expressed by the author of ‘Shloke 6KDLNK)DULGNH¶EHWUD\WKH¿UVWSKDVHRILQÀXHQFHRI9DLVKQDYD9HGDQWLF%KDNWL LHD period which begins from the middle of the 15th century. (Sharda 1974: 107). In addition, LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT AND P RESERVATION IN SOUTH ASIA Majority language death 21 In today’s Pakistan, the Punjabi-speaking community is anything but a GLVDGYDQWDJHGHWKQLFJURXS7KHLQÀXHQWLDOFODVVRIULFK3XQMDELODQGORUGV the largest educated middle class which provides most of the personnel for white-collar professions and is the pool for recruitment into civil and military service – all that makes the general public as well as political analysts regard Punjabis as a privileged group. However, the mother tongue of this privileged and numerically dominant group has no institutional support in Pakistan. All cultural, intellectual or professional activity of the community takes place either in Urdu or in English. There are 36,750 Sindhi-medium schools in Sind and 10,731 Pashto- medium schools in the Northwestern Province, and both languages are also taught as compulsory subjects in these two provinces (Rahman 2002a: 515- 524). However, there is not a single Punjabi-medium school, and Punjabi is nowhere taught as a compulsory subject. With the exception of several 3XQMDEL¿OPVDQGVKRUW79RUUDGLRSURJUDPV3XQMDELLVDOPRVWDEVHQWIURP the mass media, and completely absent from government services. One can do an M.A. or a Ph.D. in the University of the Punjab in Lahore, but it can hardly serve the cause of preserving the Punjabi language. People may ZDWFKD¿OPLQ3XQMDELEXWWKH\GRQRWUHDG3XQMDELZULWWHQWH[WVEHFDXVH they are only used to speaking and listening to Punjabi, not to reading it. Very few people would read a book or a newspaper in their ‘mother tongue’, because they have not got used to it in school. As a result, Punjabi-speaking poets and writers have to write in Urdu for Punjabi-speaking readers if they want their books to sell. 2I DOO WKH ODQJXDJHV OLVWHG LQ FHQVXVHV RQO\ WKH ¿JXUHV IRU 3XQMDEL speakers have decreased from 48.17% in 1981 to 44.15% in 1998. This decline cannot be explained by a drop in the Siraiki or Punjabi population (which did not occur) nor by the mass migration of Punjabis to other places. 7KH UHDVRQ PLJKW EH WKDW D QXPEHU RI 3XQMDELV LGHQWL¿HG WKHPVHOYHV LQ the 1998 census as speakers of Urdu. The sociological research undertaken E\ 0DQVRRU DQG 5DKPDQ D LQ /DKRUH SDUWLDOO\ FRQ¿UPV WKLV VXSSRVLWLRQ DV D VLJQL¿FDQW QXPEHU RI 3XQMDEL VWXGHQWV LGHQWL¿HG WKHUHLVYLYLG.DELU¶VLQÀXHQFHRQ%DED)DULG¶VFRPSRVLWLRQV$V.DELU¶VOLIHWLPHLVGDWHG between 1398 and 1520, it seems most reasonable to attribute Sheikh Farid’s poetry to the period from 1450 to 1554. LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT AND P RESERVATION IN SOUTH ASIA Majority language death 22 themselves as speakers of Urdu. They felt embarrassed to call themselves ‘Punjabi speakers’ as – according to them – the only topics suitable for Punjabi were gossip, swearing and jokes. Why do Punjabis not support their own language? An attempt is made below to adduce historical, economic, political, cultural and psychological explanations for this phenomenon. 2. THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC STATUS OF P UNJABI FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE . 3XQMDEL GLG QRW KDYH DQ\ RI¿FLDO VWDWXV LQ WKH 0XJKDO Empire. Maharaja Ranjit Singh (± WKHIRXQGHURIWKH¿UVW6LNK (PSLUHZKLFKODVWHGIURPWRSDWURQL]HG3XQMDELEXW3HUVLDQ remained the language of the court. It is worth mentioning that literacy (and, consequently, the number of people who had good command of the Persian language) was far more widespread in the Sikh kingdom than in other provinces. Before the British conquest of the Punjab in 1849, there were 300,000 pupils in indigenous schools, whereas in 1860-61 these numbers had come down to 60,168 pupils (Leitner 1882:16). There were both Persian and Arabic schools. Since Persian was the language of the government, bureaucracy, judiciary, education, etc., it was necessary to learn it in order to function as a munshi (clerk), a muallim (teacher), and generally as any state functionary (Rahman 2003: 2). In 1849, the Punjab had passed into the hands of the British East India Company and later became a province of the British Empire in India. The Department of Public Instruction created by British rulers in 1855 retained Persian as the language of written documentation. Persian was later replaced with Urdu, the informal lingua franca of North India. In the Punjab, Urdu was accepted by the British rulers as the vernacular language after consulting WKHRI¿FHUVSRVWHGLQWKHGLVWULFWVRIWKHQHZSURYLQFHV8UGXEHFDPHWKH medium of instruction in government schools attended by the working class, lower-middle and middle class children. Urdu was also the language of administration and of the lower-level judicial bodies, printing press and the army (Rahman 2011). Interestingly, in 1860 a medical course in Urdu was instituted